Obligatory Real Life Update
The good news is that I'm breathing.
So, short of actually having someone pull me aside and say they're not renewing my contract, the writing is pretty much on the wall for my not having a job at the end of the month. Unless there is suddenly a change of heart (major task completed, new hires, emphasis in e-mails as being an temporary worker, and absence of mention in a more recent e-mail about the state of the department I work for). On one hand, I can get a positive reference from my direct supervisor, and I'm still in with the temp agency, and there's still enough in savings that we're not nearly so bad off this year as we were this time in 2010, where seriously it did come down to either getting an assignment or possibly having to choose between living somewhere and eating.
On the other hand, I would love for there to be one year were I could celebrate my birthday without feeling like there's a sword hanging directly above my head. As it is, we were actually thinking about taking a weekend and going down to Portland for our anniversary (and belated honeymoon) which would have been the duckling and my first time having some vacation-type time together since 2008 (right before we headed out to Seattle).
In other news, Saturday morning, one of our cats (Shan, also any number of ridiculous nicknames after this) knocked the screen out of our window, and went out after it (jumping, falling, or surfing down on the screen like a hovercat, I dunno). Fortunately, she didn't get very far. We found her laying behind one of the wheels of our car, and when we called her name, she meowed in response.
Acrocat is alive, though she's limping. She dislocated her left hip and tore her cruciate ligament in the right knee. The vet we talked to recommended surgery for alpha-kitty, but 1) see above about impending loss of job meaning that I'm really trying to figure out how to pay for a $3,000 surgery, and 2) googling the issue gave me a really 'meh' impression about the effectiveness of the surgery anyway, cost issues aside. It's definitely not something I want to rush into at this point. (Anyone who has advice about tortie-butt's situation is definitely welcome here)
Mostly, I'm hoping that one way or another, Dumbo-cat here will pull through mostly unharmed, and she will have learned that even though she looks like a crow and chirps like a bird, she definitely is missing the physiological capacity to fly.
So that's what's going on.
So, short of actually having someone pull me aside and say they're not renewing my contract, the writing is pretty much on the wall for my not having a job at the end of the month. Unless there is suddenly a change of heart (major task completed, new hires, emphasis in e-mails as being an temporary worker, and absence of mention in a more recent e-mail about the state of the department I work for). On one hand, I can get a positive reference from my direct supervisor, and I'm still in with the temp agency, and there's still enough in savings that we're not nearly so bad off this year as we were this time in 2010, where seriously it did come down to either getting an assignment or possibly having to choose between living somewhere and eating.
On the other hand, I would love for there to be one year were I could celebrate my birthday without feeling like there's a sword hanging directly above my head. As it is, we were actually thinking about taking a weekend and going down to Portland for our anniversary (and belated honeymoon) which would have been the duckling and my first time having some vacation-type time together since 2008 (right before we headed out to Seattle).
In other news, Saturday morning, one of our cats (Shan, also any number of ridiculous nicknames after this) knocked the screen out of our window, and went out after it (jumping, falling, or surfing down on the screen like a hovercat, I dunno). Fortunately, she didn't get very far. We found her laying behind one of the wheels of our car, and when we called her name, she meowed in response.
Acrocat is alive, though she's limping. She dislocated her left hip and tore her cruciate ligament in the right knee. The vet we talked to recommended surgery for alpha-kitty, but 1) see above about impending loss of job meaning that I'm really trying to figure out how to pay for a $3,000 surgery, and 2) googling the issue gave me a really 'meh' impression about the effectiveness of the surgery anyway, cost issues aside. It's definitely not something I want to rush into at this point. (Anyone who has advice about tortie-butt's situation is definitely welcome here)
Mostly, I'm hoping that one way or another, Dumbo-cat here will pull through mostly unharmed, and she will have learned that even though she looks like a crow and chirps like a bird, she definitely is missing the physiological capacity to fly.
So that's what's going on.